South By Southwest boasts indie film spirit

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - The definition of a
festival success story tends to come in the form of numbers:
How much did distributors fork over for the grand jury prize
winner? How late did negotiations go into the night?

At the South by Southwest Film Conference and Festival,
which kicks off Friday in Austin, Texas, success comes in a far
less quantifiable form.

"One of the most gratifying things that happens is when
people come and make connections that lead to more work,"
explains SXSW festival producer Matt Dentler. "They meet and go
on to make a project that's at the next South by Southwest.
That means we're not just a venue to showcase creativity, but
to spark more creativity for the future."

By that standard, this year's SXSW, which runs through
March 15 -- is already a success, thanks to Mary and Ronald
Bronstein.

Last year, Ronald picked up SXSW's special jury award for
"Frownland," a debut film that took six years to complete. In
Austin, he and wife Mary met up with Joe Swanberg and Greta
Gerwig, whose "Hannah Takes the Stairs" (directed by Swanberg,
who co-wrote the script with Gerwig) was one of the festival's
most-talked-about premieres. A bond was forged, and a project
was born: Mary's exploration of toxic friends, "Yeast," will
premiere at this year's SXSW, co-starring Gerwig.

"'Frownland' was made in a vacuum environment," says Mary
Bronstein. "(SXSW) was the first time we felt that we were part
of an independent film community. I was inspired to make
('Yeast') after being down there and seeing all the great work
people were doing."

As poster children for SXSW convergence, the Bronsteins are
by no means alone. The Austin festival is all about synergies
and partnerships of different types -- the tech nerds flow
directly into the film fanboys who all really want to be rock
'n' roll stars -- and the atmosphere jostles more than just
creative juices in its attendees. Virtually across the board,
distributors, sponsors, registrants and execs call the festival
"casual" and "manageable," along with "hip" and "cool" -- even
if they don't call it a "market."

"In a culture where independent music has become 30%-40% of
all music sold, when independent films get almost all the
nominations at the Academy Awards, SXSW is reaping the
benefits," explains Evan Shapiro, general manager at IFC TV,
which is world-premiering documentaries about punk rock ("Heavy
Load") and the death penalty ("At the Death House Door").
Continued...